


Tied into Knots

by aeitric



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Excessive Drinking, Levi is sad, M/M, and bad at feelings, and he drinks a lot, but yes!, eren has friends, eren is just great, just perfectly happy, oh gosh, that was sarcastic, trigger warning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-17
Updated: 2015-10-17
Packaged: 2018-04-26 17:16:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5013202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aeitric/pseuds/aeitric
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Probably the worst attempt at humor in the worst situation you'll ever have the excruciating joy of reading.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tied into Knots

**Author's Note:**

> In case you didn't read the notes - there is a trigger warning for heavy drinking! Please be safe! ^^

In the end, it didn't really matter.

  
What Eren had done may have been unforgivable, sure, but did he really care when Mikasa waved goodbye for the last time? When Armin told him he hoped that he would never have to deal with the burden of seeing Eren's face again? No, not really. In fact, Eren was perfectly happy.

  
It didn't really matter that he missed Jean's crappy jokes and Connie's stupid faces and the way Ymir laughed. Eren was perfectly happy going on as he normally did, just without his home. His friends. His heart was not broken, and Eren was perfectly happy.

  
Eren still smiled and he laughed with his coworkers as he did before, except now there was no Connie to add in a horrible pun. He still went out to lunch at his favorite bar, except now there was no Jean to talk to and yell at for stealing his fries. Eren still mattered, but he just didn't matter as much. Not really.

  
When Eren cried, he still expected Armin to come up behind him with a tissue. When he fought, he still expected Mikasa to join in, pummeling the other half to death. But instead, Eren cried without Armin and he fought without Mikasa. Sometimes if it was a bad day he would cry as he fought, blindly striking out where ever his fists found friction.

  
Eren was battered and bruised, drunk and sad.

  
And he was perfectly happy.

  
His boss, Levi, had seemed to take notice of Eren's strange patterns of either showing up angry or showing up hungover quite fast. Eren didn't care how many strikes he got. If he got fired, it was just less work and less people talking to him. In fact, it sounded like an incredibly good deal to Eren, but then again to a drunk man there were few bad ideas and even less to a drunk boy.

  
When Levi called Eren down to his office to talk, as Eren stumbled down to his boss' office, he could exactly say he was writhing with shock. When Levi gave Eren "The Look", that usually had people running out with pee streaming down their leg, Eren just sighed and hiccuped.

  
"Would you even try to sober up a little bit? How did you even get here?" Levi's face was painted with disgust. Eren couldn't blame him. Couldn't even muster up the strength to ask Levi if he wanted to start a fight or something. He just lamely shrugged.

  
"Took my bike." A short hiccup. "You see, there are no laws about driving a bike drunk." Eren was sure he had just found the loophole of the century. Levi didn't even bother to conceal the eye roll sent his way. Eren burped and blew a kiss at him. "And you thought it was a good idea to show up to the workplace drunk for what reason?" The shorter male was obviously unimpressed.

  
"Hey, if it makes you feel better, you can fire me. Doesn't..." Eren trailed off, forgetting his train of thought for a few seconds. "Ah. I remember. Doesn't matter to me. Lost all my friends and my family. Whatever, you know?" Eren slipped up every few words, stumbling over vowels. Levi groaned and rubbed his temple.

  
Levi ended up sending Eren home without much of his famous temper shown towards the brown haired male. Maybe it had something to do with Eren's self-pity speech. When Eren arrived home, all hell broke loose. Maybe it was the suppressed anger, maybe Eren just didn't like his vases. Either way, the porcelain came smashing down.

  
Vases, plates, cups. Eren took them all down screaming at the top of his lungs, bringing down one after one after ten. Whatever breakable object he sound was shattered within two seconds of being in Eren's hand, fueled by a passionate drunken stupor. When the flurry was over, Eren sat on the floor surrounded by bits and pieces of his dead mother's china.

  
As you can tell, Eren was perfectly happy.

  
Levi showed up a little later to check up on Eren. It had been a few hours, but Eren still sat sadly on the floor brushing pointy shards around, like he wanted to clean but he didn't really want to. Luckily, his hands were only mildly cut up so Levi was able to wash them easily. As he wrapped gauze around Eren's hand, Levi inspected the area.

  
Bottles were strew everywhere, either empty or dripping. he figured Eren may have dropped his savings account a significant amount in order to fund the alcohol he was consuming daily. Trash littered the ground and scraps of dinnerware coated the kitchen floor. In the living room, pictures once framed were seemly taken out and torn to shreds, their golden frames still on the ground.

 

Eren was loud.

  
Eren was always loud.

  
Even when he shouldn't have, he spoke often and laughed with that group of friends constantly trailing him. The same group that was now laying in pieces across Eren's carpet. He finished taping the gauze to Eren's wrist. The boy wasn't a troublemaker, per se, did all his work on time and had never been late once. Before what happened, at least.

  
To Levi, it was all a bother. The smashed cups and plates, the boy in front of him, the fact he forgot to feed the cat this morning - it was all just troublesome. His job was stressful enough without Eren's angst. Never was there a moment where Levi got to sit down and read, maybe enjoy a cup of tea for what it's worth.

  
But, of course, the world was out to get Levi. That must have been the reason why he was squatting in front of a sad intoxicated boy, scrubbing sharp shards of china plates off of his palms. He didn't mind it as much as he would admit, though. Not really. Even though the scent of Eren's blood made Levi's stomach wreak all havoc inside of him.

  
"So you gonna fire me or what?" Eren's eyes were glazed over as he spoke. Maybe because of the pain in his hands, maybe because the whiskey Levi had used to clean the wounds was almost finished. Either way, Levi was having none of it.  
"I'm not going to fire you, kid. Not until you murder someone in the workplace. Then, I may have to consider it." They both shared a humorless chuckle at Levi's poorly conducted joke. It wasn't awkward, not really. Just a stuffy silence that both males didn't want to confront. Call it the elephant in the room if you will.

  
"Do you ever just wonder how you ended up here right now?" Eren leaned his head back, forwarding a small thump as his skull made contact with the cabinet. "That every single moment before this led up talking about..." Eren trailed off and waved his hand in the space between himself and Levi. "This?" Levi thought for a moment, considering what Eren had said. "Not really. I live in the now. In the moment, I guess."

  
The glaze that had washed over Eren's irises was gone, replaced by a look Levi couldn't discern, which was saying something. "Levi, are you liking where you stand right now in life?" Eren asked, the slurring and stutter no longer present, only the confident tone Levi had grown accustomed to over the years they had worked together.

  
He used to hate that voice. When it boomed over to Levi's cuticle, coming from somewhere nearby, Levi would scowl and plug his earphones in. He tried to drown out Eren and Jean's annual Fight of the Day while others paused their work routines and gathered around the two, cheering for either one and even placing bets on the winner.

  
When the fights stopped and Erwin quit his job of boss, chasing after a red headed female leaving Levi to be the one who would take his place, he thought he had died and gone to heaven. It seemed like a kick back job, with a bonus, too - an office away from Eren's desk. But instead, he was constantly dealing with whiny brats and - he couldn't say he was too surprised - Eren. Karma is as karma does.

 

"I hate my job and I get the absolute pleasure of dealing with you on a daily basis." Levi deadpanned, and Eren grinned stupidly. Levi couldn't help but glace down at the shining pearls on display, tracing the straight teeth with his gaze. Eren caught his stare and let his face fall, pupils dilating. Levi cleared his throat and stood up. He offered Eren a hand, and the boy took it. He was grabbing a broom and a dustpan when Eren finally decided to speak up.

  
"We should take a trip or something. So you can get a break and I can try to... I don't know, get better."

  
Levi's back straightened, posed like a rod. He turned slowly to Eren, keeping his stiff posture. "What are you implying?" Eren waved his hands around, almost slipping on a particularly slippery shard of glass. "Nothing, I just really need a vacation. And it seems like you do too." Levi huffed out of his nose and rolled his eyes. "To where?"

  
"How does the beach sound?"

**Author's Note:**

> So, what do you guys think Eren said that was so unforgivable? hmmmmm ( ͡o ͜ʖ ͡o)


End file.
